I am amazed at how many people are willing to believe in a product
that will increase gas mileage by 50-300% just because gas prices are so
high. A lot of people have mentioned Water 4 Gas. No, you cannot run
your car on water, but devices like this use hydrogen they get from the
water to improve the mileage your car gets.

How Does It Work

Let's take a look at this technology to see how it works.
Water4gas,
Hydro Runner,
Hydro 4000, etc. All of these
devices work off some basic principals of physics. Water, or H2O, is two
parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Hydrogen can be used as a fuel
source. Why not extract the hydrogen out of water and run our cars on
the hydrogen. Simple.

Every system I have done any research on does the same
basic thing. They use electricity from your car's electrical system
(your alternator) to perform electrolysis.
Electrolysis is
a method of separating chemically bonded elements and compounds by
passing an electric current through them. These systems take the
hydrogen acquired from the water and channel it into the intake stream
of a car's engine. The principal is to have the car burn a combination
of hydrogen and gasoline, reducing the amount of expensive gasoline your
car needs.

So, does it work? Or is this a scam? Well, it does not work,
and it most definitely is a scam.

Sorry to be so blunt, but the process that these people suggest is so
close to impossible I find it amazing that so many people would believe
it is true.

Let's do a little math. How much hydrogen can we get from water. Well,
when we convert water to a gas it take up a substantially larger volume.
For instance, 1 liter of water will generate approximately 2,689.7
liters of hydrogen (see
this article). This seems like a lot of hydrogen.

The real math comes when we look at how much "air" an internal
combustion engine uses. A basic four stoke internal combustion engine
(intake, compression, power, exhaust) must make two full revolutions for
all its cylinders to go through an intake stroke. Let's late a typical
3.0 liter 6 cylinder engine. At 3.0 liters that means the total of all
the cylinders is 3.0 liters. Since it takes two revolution to fill the
entire engine we could just say that in 1 revolution it takes in half,
or 1.5 liters per revolution.

At highway speeds an engine running at 2,000 revolution per minute (RPM)
is common. So, the engine takes in the following:

engine size / 2 * RPM = volume per minute

3.0 / 2 * 2000 = 3000 liters per minute.

So, at highway speed our car with its 3.0 liter engine is breathing in
3,000 liters every minute. The Hydro Runner device mentioned above
claims that 1 liter of water will last 3,000-4,000 miles.

Let's take another look at our 6 cylinder car. At highway speed, say 70
MPH, with its engine turning at 2000 RPM. We know that it consumes
"air" at a rate of 3,000 liters per minute. How many hours does it take
to travel 4,000 miles?

So we are going to introduce 2,689.7 liters of hydrogen into over 10
Million liters of air. That's 0.026%. A miniscule amount. Yet we are to
believe this tiny amount of hydrogen can cause amazing improvements in
mileage.

It Can't Work

On any car built after 1996 this can't work. Cars since 1996 have
OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic, version 2) which includes oxygen (O2)
sensors in the exhaust. If there is oxygen in the exhaust the computer
can adjust the amount of fuel to get the engine to run as close as
possible to the perfect air/fuel ratio to get the most out of the gas
and the least emissions. If you introduce enough hydrogen to upset the
balance of oxygen in the "air" going into the engine then the computer
would counteract it.

At least with such a tiny amount of hydrogen being introduced you can
be sure that you aren't going to damage your car.

HydroRunner

The HydroRunner device costs $3500. Even if it could return 50%
improvement in mileage, how long would it take for you to get a return
on your investment?

12,000 mile @ 25 mpg = 480 gallons @ $4.00/gal = $1,920/year

Add 50%:

12,000 mile @ 37.5 mpg = 320 gallons @ $4.00/gal = $1,280/year

If it worked you would save $640 a year. That means it will take
about 5-1/2 years to break even on the investment... assuming it really
did work and you kept the car that long.

I really like how they show the results of an "independent" test of
the system. The testers used the cars on board mileage display to
determine the mileage. And we know how well they use the controls since
they had to invalidate two tests because they accidentally turned off
the overdrive.

Heaven forbid they do the test accurately and put
in a measured amount of gas into the vehicle and see how many miles it
travels on a chassis dyno. Of couse people will tell you they don't
drive on a dyno. Yes, but on a dyno you can control many more variables,
such as terrain, weather, traffic, etc. If it can't work on a dyno how
can it work in the real world. And let's not forget the placebo effect.
People will sub-conciosly drive will better mileage in mind while they
drive with such a device. You can influence you mileage y over 20% just
with driving technique alone.

Why not submit the device to the
EPA for testing?
After all this is what they do. I know the answer the device makers and
the supports of these devices will say. They will claim that no one
believes the number the EPA puts on cars is real. But what they fail to
note is that the EPA's tests are extremely reliable and repeatable. If
the device really worked it would improve the mileage during the EPA's
testing by the percentage claimed. It's like the chassis dyno test, they
don't do it because it will fail.

Hydro4000

The Hydro4000 only costs $1,200. A
news station actually tested this themselves. They took a vehicle
and ran it on a chassis dyno with a measured amount of gas. Hey, we're
on the right track here. Then they
installed the device and let the owner drive around for a month. Then
they tested the car again.

They showed a 10% improvement in mileage. However, their testing was
seriously flawed. The biggest flaw was not removing the device and
testing the vehicle on the same day with and without the device. Surely
if the device were responsible for the mileage increase then removing
the device and running the vehicle again would show a reduction in
mileage.

Let's assume for a second that the device did provide a 10%
improvement. How long before you get your money back on the $1,200
investment:

12,000 mile @ 25 mpg = 480 gallons @ $4.00/gal = $1,920/year

Add 10%:

12,000 mile @ 27.5 mpg = 436 gallons @ $4.00/gal = $1,744/year

That's a savings of $176 a year. That means it will take about 6.8
years to recover the cost of the device. Assuming the 10% was due to the
device and not substandard testing procedures. For instance, their
testing was done a month apart. Any chance the they didn't perform every
step exact the same. They took the
owner's word for it that the vehicle was in good condition. Why not take
it to a mechanic and have it tuned up to be sure the vehicle was in the
best possible state of tune to test the device?

There are so many flaws in these systems. They are all scams. If they
really worked why wouldn't any car manufacturer want to install them in
their cars across the board and have a real advantage over their
competition. GM and Ford are losing billions. Surely they would have put
their engineers on this to try and save their companies.

None of the devices are being testing by the EPA. Why not? The cost
to have the EPA test a device and declare it a success would be
invaluable in providing credibility to the device. The only reason not
to do it is because it doesn't work.

Let's face it, there is no magic device that will
have your car getting huge improvements in mileage. If there was the
manufacturers would use it. Unless you believe in the conspiracy theory
that the oil companies are paying the manufacturers to not
make cars that get better gas mileage. Yea, that's working. GM and Ford
are losing billions because the oil company is paying them under the
table. Yea, that must be the reason these devices have never been
installed by the manufacturers, because they are making a massive profit
to not install them.

Those who say it works
are one of two people. 1) They have a vested interest in it... meaning
they are trying to make money off of it, or 2) they bought one and
are too embarrassed to admit it doesn't work or just too foolish to
believe it doesn't work..

Next month we will look at a number of real possibilities for cars to
get better gas mileage as well as alternative fuels that promise to relieve our
dependency on foreign oil.